Category: Sol Summary

Sol: 2
Summary Title: The birthday party
Author’s name: Izabela Shopova
Mission Status: Nominal
Sol Activity Summary: Our first full day in sim started at sunrise. The crew engineer checked the suit batteries’ voltage before breakfast. While retrieving the multimeter from RAM Crew journalist made a mistake and opened the front door, which broke the sim accidentally. Realizing the mistake we closed the door and went out through the rare airlock.
At breakfast, the crew had a serving of the first batch of our homemade yogurt in addition to home-baked biscuits, dry fruits, cheese, and ham, while discussing the plans for the day.
The two EVAs to Marble Ritual went well. The crew tested our EVA checklist and had some good lessons learned. It was very exciting to be on our first non-supervised EVAs. The weather was brilliant – cold and clear. We took millions of great photos and videos, including one taken with a drone.
Between the two EVAs the crew threw a surprise party for our Commander’s birthday with a chocolate cake and a birthday card.
Look Ahead Plan: Plan for tomorrow includes First Aid training, support for Intertribal Space conference, and an afternoon EVA
Anomalies in work: Accidental break of sim by mistake in the morning. One of the headphones is giving us trouble.
Weather: Cold and clear, sub-zero temperatures.
Crew Physical Status: Optimal – High spirits, good health, optimistic, elated.
EVA: Two successful EVAs
Support Requested: pillows, trash bags, cleaning product for helmets and please retrieve the garbage we have left in the rear airlock

Thank you , Mission support

Sol:1
Summary Title: We are in sim!
Author’s name: Izabela Shopova
Mission Status: Nominal
Sol Activity Summary:
The morning was dedicated to training with Dr Rupert and after a short lunch break, the crew suited up and tested the two types of suites.

The main activity in the afternoon was our first EVA for a test drive and to familiarise ourselves with the area. Dr Rupert pointed out interesting locations for our crew scientist to visit and helped us navigate by our maps.

Back in the Hub we officially started the simulation at 1600. Had dinner and reviewed our plan for Sol 2.

Look Ahead Plan:
Crew 268 will do two EVAs in Sol2 for familiarisation and prospecting for biological sample sights.
Anomalies in work: None
Weather: Sunny and cold, very good for EVAs
Crew Physical Status: Feeling good, no health issues and concerns, in high spirits
EVA: Successful training EVA. Drove 3 rovers.
Reports to be filed: No outstanding reports
Support Requested: N/A

Sol: 12

Summary Title: Last day on Mars
Author’s Name: Laurène Delsupexhe
Mission Status: Nominal
Sol Activity Summary: Today marked the end of our simulation. As usual, Paula went to water the plants. Cristina had baked a nice piece of bread. The Morning was mainly dedicated to cleaning the station. Laurène had an LGM session with a friend and then went on a final engineering EVA. Meanwhile, Marta prepared lunch. At 2pm, the simulation came to an end. Sergii kindly took us to the overlook for a last Mars exploration : the views were spectacular.

Look ahead plan: N/A

Anomalies at work: N/A

Weather: Sunny, 5°C

Crew Physical Status: Good

EVA: 1

Reports to be filed: Sol Summary Report, Commander Report, GreenHab Report, Operations Report, EVA Request

Support Requested: None, thank you Mission Support!

Sol: 11

Summary Title: Winter is coming to Mars

Author’s Name: Cristina Vazquez Reynel, Crew Exec Officer and HSO

Mission Status: Nominal

Sol Activity Summary: Today the crew woke up at 8am full of energy and had a nice breakfast together.

The crew had a busy day ahead with Laurene, Paula and Marta having braided sessions with their friends and family and two EVAs planned.

The day started by preparing for the EVA experiments and cleaning in the RAM and GreenHab. Just before lunch, Laurene and Cristina went out for the first EVA of the day, they tested the robot close to the Hab and went to explore the amazing views of Skyline Rim. Unfortunately, the test failed and no useful data was collected this time. Following their return to the Hab, Paula and Marta got ready and went out for the second EVA, they successfully repeated the test with the robot and spent some time exploring and taking nice pictures with the beautiful sunset.

After the cold EVAs, with temperatures below 0°C, the crew gathered for a hot chocolate and started preparing the reports of the day.

Look ahead plan: Tomorrow the crew is planning a full day preparing for the end of the simulation and a special trip to the Overlook.

Anomalies at work: N/A

Weather: Sunny, 3°C

Crew Physical Status: Good

EVA: 2

Reports to be filed: Sol Summary Report, Commander Report, GreenHab Report, Operations Report, EVA Request

Support Requested: None, thank you Mission Support!

Sol: 10

Summary Title: Happy Birthday Commander !

Author’s Name: Paula Peixoto Moledo – Crew Biologist and Journalist

Mission Status: Nominal

Sol Activity Summary: Today was a special day but our crew woke up at 7:30 am. As a birthday wish Marta asked for some pancakes for breakfast and thus Laurene, master of it, took the lead. After a very nice breakfast, Paula went to the GreenHab to do the maintenance and see if there was any leak as a consequence of the weather during the night (windy and shower the whole night). Marta, the birthday girl, had a Braided session today, it was a special one too! Meanwhile, the crew did some cake baking and updated the food inventory in preparation for the end of the mission. Afterwards, the crew continued working on the website of WoMars and some more astronaut training.
Cristina, Laurene, and Paula prepared a special meal to celebrate Marta’s birthday, including cake!!

After lunch, the crew played one game of blinded ‘The Mind’ as they already mastered the normal one.
Later, they went to the Science Dome to check some rocks they picked up in the last 2 EVAs and tested the salinity as previously done with other samples.
After a day’s debrief led by Marta, the crew started working on the reports and planned the special dinner for the day: PIZZA !

Happy Birthday, Commander !!!

Look ahead plan: Tomorrow the crew is planning a full day with one EVA in the morning and another one in the afternoon.

Anomalies at work: N/A

Weather: Showers, 8°C

Crew Physical Status: Good

EVA: 0

Reports to be filed: Sol Summary Report, Commander Report, GreenHab Report, Operations Report, EVAs Request

Support Requested: None, thank you Mission Support!

Sol: 9

Summary Title: Versatile day

Author’s Name: Laurène Delsupexhe, Crew Engineer

Mission Status: Nominal

Sol Activity Summary: Our crew woke up at 7:30 am. Paula went to the GreenHab as usual to water the plants and check the temperature and humidity. As we had a bit of time, we played The Mind, a card game we’ve gotten quite addicted to, and today we completed it fully for the first time !
Following that, Paula had her Braided Communications session with a friend of hers. Meanwhile, Cristina and Marta uploaded the data gathered the day before from the Dronomy robot.
After a lunch prepared by Laurène, Paula and Cristina prepared for their EVA with the help of Marta and Laurène. They then left to test the robot and explore the surroundings. Meanwhile, Laurène and Marta did some exercises from the « astronaut selection test book » by ESA astronaut Tim Peake.
After a day’s debrief led by Marta, the crew started working on the reports.

Look ahead plan: Tomorrow is Marta’s birthday ! If the weather allows it, she’ll head off for an EVA after a Braided Communications with her family. Meanwhile, the rest of the crew will analyze the salinity of some soils previously collected in the area.

Anomalies at work: N/A

Weather: Sunny, 18 °C

Crew Physical Status: Good

EVA: 1

Reports to be filed: Sol Summary Report, Commander Report, GreenHab Report, Operations Report, EVAs Reports

Support Requested: None, thank you Mission Support!

Sol: 8
Summary Title: Troubleshooting the Space Suits
Author’s Name: Cristina Vazquez Reynel, Crew Exec Officer and HSO
Mission Status: Nominal
Sol Activity Summary: Our crew woke up at 8:00 am and while having breakfast, Cristina had her last Latency Governed Messaging session. The day started in the ScienceDome, the crew analyzed the salinity of the soil collected in previous EVAs and started creating a map that will indicate the salinity in each area surrounding the MDRS.
For the rest of the morning, the crew continued with the troubleshooting of the EVA suits following the instructions from Mission Support. After a few iterations of measuring battery voltage and swapping chargers and suits, it was clear that 3 batteries were faulty and one suit had a different issue. The crew replaced the faulty batteries and continued troubleshooting the remaining suit.
The crew had a very tasty lunch together and straight after, Marta and Laurene started preparing for their EVA. During the EVA, they tested the robot Lazarus on new challenging circuits very successfully. Meanwhile, the crew in mission control continued checking the faulty EVA suit and found that it was discharging very quickly even with a new battery.
Look ahead plan: Tomorrow the crew will continue troubleshooting, Paula will have a braided session and the EVA crew will continue testing the robot from Dronomy and collecting soil samples.
Anomalies at work: EVA suit 6 still not working properly.
Weather: Sunny, 17 °C
Crew Physical Status: Good
EVA: 1
Reports to be filed: Sol Summary Report, Commander Report, GreenHab Report, Operations Report, EVAs Reports
Support Requested: EVA suit troubleshooting (ongoing), thank you Mission Support!

Sol: 8
Summary Title: Troubleshooting the Space Suits
Author’s Name: Cristina Vazquez Reynel, Crew Exec Officer and HSO
Mission Status: Nominal
Sol Activity Summary: Our crew woke up at 8:00 am and while having breakfast, Cristina had her last Latency Governed Messaging session. The day started in the ScienceDome, the crew analyzed the salinity of the soil collected in previous EVAs and started creating a map that will indicate the salinity in each area surrounding the MDRS.
For the rest of the morning, the crew continued with the troubleshooting of the EVA suits following the instructions from Mission Support. After a few iterations of measuring battery voltage and swapping chargers and suits, it was clear that 3 batteries were faulty and one suit had a different issue. The crew replaced the faulty batteries and continued troubleshooting the remaining suit.
The crew had a very tasty lunch together and straight after, Marta and Laurene started preparing for their EVA. During the EVA, they tested the robot Lazarus on new challenging circuits very successfully. Meanwhile, the crew in mission control continued checking the faulty EVA suit and found that it was discharging very quickly even with a new battery.
Look ahead plan: Tomorrow the crew will continue troubleshooting, Paula will have a braided session and the EVA crew will continue testing the robot from Dronomy and collecting soil samples.
Anomalies at work: EVA suit 6 still not working properly.
Weather: Sunny, 17 °C
Crew Physical Status: Good
EVA: 1
Reports to be filed: Sol Summary Report, Commander Report, GreenHab Report, Operations Report, EVAs Reports
Support Requested: EVA suit troubleshooting (ongoing), thank you Mission Support!

 

 

Sol: 7

Summary Title: Lazy Sunday on Mars

Author’s name: Laurène Delsupexhe, Crew Engineer

Mission Status: Nominal

Sol Activity Summary: Our crew woke up at 8:30 am with an extra hour of sleep, thanks to the time change. Laurène made some nice pancakes for breakfast while Paula went to maintain the plants in the GreenHab. The EVA suits were checked: one was working perfectly but the others seemed to have a lower than usual airflow coming from the fans. On the advice of Mission Control, we used a voltmeter to check the batteries: the values were indeed lower than expected for most of them, with one other spacesuit seemingly charged as well as the first one. Therefore, Laurène and Paula used those 2 suits for their EVA, on foot, to explore the region behind the station. Once Mission Support advised coming back to the hab to troubleshoot properly the suits, the crew cut short their EVA and headed back to the station to continue troubleshooting.
Meanwhile, on MDRS’s EVA Suit Support, Cristina and Marta opened up the rest of the spacesuits to troubleshoot them and take proper measurements.
After taking some first values, Marta and Paula prepared lunch. After it, the suit’s voltage was measured again and forwarded to mission control. We then watched a film, measured the batteries again, and started on the reports of the day. Paula then went again to the GreenHab while the rest of us prepared dinner.
Look Ahead Plan: Tomorrow, if the troubleshooting’s conclusion is positive, Marta and Laurène will go for an EVA on foot to continue the testing of Dronomy’s robot. Otherwise, the troubleshooting of the spacesuits will go on. In the afternoon, Cristina will test out Braided Communication’s communication system with her partner back in Switzerland.

Anomalies in work: Some of the fans from the EVA suits are not working properly (Very low airflow).

Weather: Sunny, 12°C

Crew Physical Status: Good

EVA: 1

Reports to be filed:
• Sol Summary Report from 6Nov2022
• Commander Report
• GreenHab Report
• Operations Report
• EVAs Reports
• HSO Report
• EVA Request

Support Requested: N/A, thank you Mission Support!

Sol Summary Report
Sol: 6
Summary Title: Stendhal Syndrome views on Mars!
Author’s name: Paula Peixoto Moledo, Crew Biologist and Crew Journalist
Mission Status: Nominal
Sol Activity Summary: Our crew woke up this morning at 8.30 am. We had some good coffee and some cookies prepared by the crew yesterday! Later in the morning Cristina and Marta went in their first on-foot EVA! They explore the surroundings of the station, a beautiful spot! And they also performed two different experiments with Lazarus, the robot by Dronomy. Both experiments were successful, and the EVA Crew took some amazing pics! Meanwhile, Laurene and Paula cleaned a little bit of the Hab.

Early in the afternoon, the crew fixed some issues with Lazarus in the RAM. Afterward, they went to the Science Building to explore some samples that the crew took from the 2 last EVAs. They came up with an idea to explore the soil around the station.

Later, the crew had a lot of reports to fill so they put themselves hands-on to finish by 7 pm!
Then Paula went to the Green Hab to maintain the plants and to harvest the crew’s first plants! Microgreens!

After a nice day in Mars, the crew cooked together a special dinner – PIZZA with our newly harvested microgreens!

Look Ahead Plan: Tomorrow Paula and Laurene are planning to explore the spot that Cristina and Marta explored today (Should be amazing). And the Crew is going to have a peaceful day – It is also Sunday on Mars!

Anomalies at work: Some of the fans from the EVA suits are not working properly (Very low airflow).
Weather: Sunny, 13 °C
Crew Physical Status: Good
EVA: 1
Reports to be filed:
· Sol Summary Report from 5Nov2022
· Commander Report
· GreenHab Report
· Operations Report
· EVAs Reports
· HSO Report
· EVA Request
· Weekly Research Report

Support Requested: Thank you Mission Support !